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I am reading Gary Marcus' Guitar Zero. In fact, I finished it tonight.

It's an excellent read for a middle-aged analyst and guitar enthusiast like myself. The book offers enormous insight into how we learn, how our brains re-wire themselves, how music affects us, music history, theories, studies, observations, anecdotes, opinions...

I read a digital copy on my iPhone. This was also a new experience for me and, surprisingly, not unpleasant. I was a hardcover guy, now
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I get it. They're simple concepts, but this is the first music notation that made me roll my eyes and want to go to bed early.

I've had minimal difficulty with whole, half, quarter and eighth notes writhing up, down and across the staff. It's cool. It's an alphabet. There's a natural flow and familiarity. These are notes/letters forming riff/words... but now I have to deal with these accents--these ties
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I wanted to play the guitar tonight, but I didn't want to practice fretboard fundamentals or learn foundational music theory. I told myself to play the guitar because practice is just practice and it's not really playing. I convinced myself to play/not play.

This is perhaps the most insidious trap in adult learning: rationalizing procrastination. In effect, I played myself.

What's scarier is his advice made instant sense and had an immediate impact (paraphrasing): don't worry about your thumb, worry about your wrist--keep your wrist down and your thumb will fall into place.

Noble me, I literally started from scratch. I did not fast forward through the pre-lessons like "the parts of the guitar" or "the names of the strings." In recognition of this miracle, I may change my handle to Saint David.

Early comments about Gibson's Learn & Master Guitar program:

Outstanding production value

Nice balance between high-level concepts and low-level details

Steve Krenz is a genuinely nice guy and his voice is well suited for instruction

Some backstory: last year I received Gibson's Learn & Master Guitar as a gift. It's a high-end product in this saturated market and emphasizes music theory as much as technique. Plus, L&MG was already an established thing before Gibson funded some reshoots and attached their brand to it. Vote of confidence, right?
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